Singing in the Sunshine!

Hello, this is Julie from Australia where next Sunday will be Mother's Day.

My piece today is a Memory Tin.

My beautiful, crafty Mum has been gone five years now.

She gifted me with a wonderful treasure trove as she was a saver, recycler and collector of all those,

"I know they will come in handy pieces!"

For this project many of her bits and bobs were perfect.

Here's a how to.

1. Brush the tin with a couple of coats of Gesso

2. Gather together the bits of memorabilia you want to use.

3. Colour a piece of interfacing with inks

Then 

4. Stamp the wonderful bird from Unity "Sing your Song" using Archival Ink.

5. Cut into a heart shape and apply to the tin using gel medium.

6. Pile on the lace, fabric pieces and embellishments and cover liberally with Gel Meduim.

7. Colour to your hearts delight with any and all the mediums you like to use.

The frame was made using a Spellbinder Die, thin metal and Vintaj Finish.

8. Add extra colour with Perfect Pearls and Viva Decor Inka Gold.

9. Take your time doing this as the finishing stops any potential stickiness.

Make the back of the tin in the same way.

Now what could I use this for?

On the inside I used alcohol inks for a fairly simple finish as I wanted my cabinet card to shine.

Serendipity is such a wonderful thing!

As I went delving into my Susan K Weckesser Papers I found the perfect scrap with a whimsical sun to use as a frame behind the strong black and white image.

The finishing touch was to tuck one of Mum's handkerchiefs in behind her portrait.

I miss my Mum's happy go lucky attitude and incredible creativity.

My memory piece I am sure she would love.

She would be smiling at the idea of gel medium on the lovely laces.

The little blue Bird of Happiness reminds us to enjoy 

every moment 

of 

every day.

Julie

Imagination . . .

 Hello everyone, Tracy here today with another project you can all create with
 a sprinkling of imagination ...
leftover scraps of pretty papers 
paints, inks, stamps, embossing powders, stencils
and a need to get
inky, paint splattered hands ... bliss!!!

To get started I pulled out a box from my stash, full of scraps from
Susan K Weckesser`s Whimsical paper line
I was over the moon to find a 12x12 Color Burst Sheet not even touched ...woohoo ...which became my starting point, followed by scraps chopped up into house shapes complete with wonky tonky doors and chimneys.
Can you see how the background paper already has beautiful splats of color ...
I fixed the houses in place with Inkssentials Glossy accents and scribbled all around with a fine black liner pen.
I do love to scribble!

 I used Susan K Weckesser Inc/Crafters Workshop Stencil along with some Gesso for the numbers on the roofs.

 More scribbles, blobs of white acrylic paint smudged around with my fingers, Tim Holtz Rub ons and cut out  hearts.
The chimneys are working .... see the puffs of smoke welcoming you home.

A little close up so that you can see the Smooch Spritz sprays I applied in various colors along with
Pan Pastels.

  I also used sentiment stamps from Susan K Weckesser/ Unity Stamp co - Create Your Day set
along with  A Little Bit Washi stamps for added texture.
Not to mention more hearts cut from scraps, churning out those chimneys!
The little hickeldy pickeldy fence was drawn in with a pan pastel tool and smudged for a softer look all round and finished with UTEE and clear embossing powders for more touchy feely textures.

 I will leave you with this little house called " Hope " along with one of the sentiments -

embrace imperfections 

It`s the imperfections that make us beautiful and unique!

Till next time
Thank you for looking
Tracy Easson
Susan K Weckesser Design Team Member 

My Ranger U 2013 Adventure

We all need time to create, time to do, time to play, and time to learn.

This past week-end I had the opportunity to go to New Jersey to attend Ranger U at Ranger Ink and let me tell you it was INCREDIBLE!

And I didn’t even get lost…. much!

(look at all the loops that the airplane took to get there! Holy Cow!)

RangerU was packed full of techniques and information. Simply AMAZING! I have to tell I have been teaching painting, art, mixed media, etc.  for over 26 years now, and it was SO AWESOME to be the student for 3 {intense} days! It reminded me of when I was studying at University! COOL!

It was super neat to be surrounded by so many talented and amazing people. Actually, I was amazed to find out that students came from 10 different countries around the world. How sweet is that! I was the only Canadian. Eh! The staff was SO wonderful!! I am sure I don’t have to introduce the instructors….

Mr. Tim Holtz 

Dyan Reaveley (dylusions)

Claudine Hellmuth (studio line)

and… mackie(vintaj) , who dissappeared before I managed to snatch a photo of her! She rocked!!!  Mario,  and the staff; Patti & her team, Jackie, and Charlene were all SO incredibly nice and helpful and I have never seen such a clean and cool plant ever! AMAZING!!! Tim compared it to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and boy, it really was!!! I wanted to touch everything…but, I didn’t. I behaved!!! Everyone was so much FUN!

The Class: Did I mention that it was amazing!

My head is STILL whirling!!!

  Heehee..I just noticed the heating tool. Do you see what it says?

{outside the Ranger building. SO pretty}

70 TAGS + 3 DAYS = A HAPPY HEART

Doesn’t all that color, textures, and patterns just make you feel SO happy! I am smiling as I type this!

Look what I found on some shelves in the Ranger Inc. Classroom. A little tiny canvas that I had made a year ago for a CHA show.  I was SO thrilled to see it sitting there.

I feel so blessed to be able to have been able to be part of this amazing event. Creating ART is SO wonderful for the HEART and SOUL and I truly feel charged up and ready to go now!!! Can’t wait to start another COLORFUL ADVENTURE in my Studio!!!

Find a little time to create today…… it really will put a smile on your face!

hugs,

Susan

{The little images, or ‘instaicons’  on my photos are designed by the lovely and talented Rhonna Farrer. You can find them and all kinds of AWESOMENESS at Rhonna Designs. }

Technorati Tags: Ranger Ink,RangerU 2013,tags,ink,Colorful Adventure,Susan K. Weckesser,Art,mixed media,Tim Holtz,Dyan Reaveley,Claudine Hellmuth,Rhonna Designs

Mini Sketch Book

Hello everyone!

Today, I want to share a mini sketch book that I created to keep on hand for when inspiration strikes.  Because according to Murphy's Law, when it hits me, I'm usually empty-handed, with nary a pad nor pen handy! :)

Supplies used:  Maya Road chipboard album; Susan K. Weckesser patterned papers and stamps; Silhouette Cameo, Rolled Rose and Flower Leaves files; Martha Stewart Crafts and Marvy Uchida punches; Tsukineko ink; WRMK Cropodile; Offray ribbon; Doodlebug Designs and Cosmo Cricket alpha stickers; Sookwang tape; pencil, mini doily, rhinestones, binder rings and elastic band from stash.

I created the album using an old a vintage Maya Road coaster chipboard album.  I removed the ball chain and used two of the pages for my covers.  Both were covered with patterned paper and double-sided tape - I find when covering large areas, the Sookwang tape is the most resilient and durable.  I then punched small circles and attached to the chipboard, to reinforce the soon-to-be-punched-by-Cropodile holes.

From the patterned paper, I fussycut the "Green with Envy" tag and removed the inner part, leaving a Polaroid-type frame.  I then mounted it on a scrap piece of the reverse coordinating side of the Live In Colour Tags paper, after flicking it with my watercolours.  The title was added and the whole thing was mounted onto the album cover.  I wrapped it all with a satin ribbon and then embellished with flowers and butterflies (of course!), cut and punched from coordinating patterned papers.

The pencil holder was made by folding a short piece of elastic band around the pencil and sewing a loop.  I then punched a circle from patterned paper and attached it to the mini doily.  Using the loop as a guide, I cut a slit through both, using my craft knife.  I fed the elastic loop through the doily/circle and then attached it all to the upper portion of my chipboard, centering it between the punched holes.

The pencil was made by stamping plain copy paper with turquoise ink and the A Little Bit Washi stamp set.  It was cut to length and then wrapped around a mechanical pencil that was covered in double-sided tape.  Easy peasy!

For the inside pages, I wanted pre-drawn squares to use when I am brainstorming sketches for the Sketchy Challenges for Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  Using Adobe Illustrator, I created the custom pages and printed them out.  Once they were all trimmed down to size, I marked and punched the holes with the Cropodile and bound it all together with 1" binder rings.

Thanks for looking - hope you enjoyed my project!

Cheers,
Sue :)

My Blog:  Kewl Beans

Bloom where you are planted

Hey there bloggers! Rita Barakat here today with a fun project!

I used Susan K.Weckessor's whimsical paper line

 and her stamp, The Happy Homestead form Unity. 

Some close ups...

 

 The cute little house was stamped, embossed and then colored with Gelatos.

 I cut the letters out from one of the papers.

 Of course that bird id so stinking cute, I had to give her a little sparkle!

 

 I got the textured letter background by adding molding paste and a stencil.

I painted the background with Gelatos.

The piece is mounted on clear acrylic...

I dont know why- but this piece makes me happy, i hope it makes you happy too!

Spring has Sprung!

Hi everyone Jennifer here this week!  I created a little 6 x 12 scrapbook layout for my quote book.  I started off with cutting a piece of Susan's paper Beautiful Daydreams in half.  I choose this part as I like that it was already like a little scene. 

I then cut out a few flowers and butterflies from the other side of the paper and added pop dots to them.  I also took a Spellbinders Want 2 Scrap bling that looked like a sun and pasted it to the Bouquet paper and cut it out to make a sun. 

I then took paper and cut a bit of the edge of the cloud out so I could tuck the sun behind it.  I glued the one edge down but pop dotted the other to give the sun dimension. I attached a Pink Paislee butterfly to the sun.  I had distressed it with a bit of Donna Salazar ink. 





 Then I took rubber stamp from Susan K Weckesser's Grandma's Needlepoint set and stamped it around the edge of the paper to make it look like I sewed on it. 



I added my flowers I cut as well as another few butterflies!!  I then found a rub on that I liked and rubbed it onto the paper just above the flower line.  Of course a bit of bling in the middle of the butterflies as well.

I added a few other embellishments, a couple birds and resin flowers and Voila! my finished project....I like how Spring - y it is.

 It makes me happy to look at it.  It will find a home in my 6 x 12 album book which is starting to be quite the little album.  If you have not tried the 6 x 12 format give it a whirl as it is a nice size if you want to have a quick project or have a quote or small photo to use.  Hope you enjoyed this weeks project and hope you all are enjoying your season where ever you live!

Hugs Jennifer